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LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 


A.    RUSSELL    BUCHANAN 


Prussianized  Germany 

Americans  of 

Foreign  Descent  and 

America's  Cause 

From  an  address  before  the 

Harrisburg,  Pa.,  Chamber  of  Commerce 

September  26, 1917 

By 
OTTO  H.  KAHN 


Prussianized  Germany 

Americans  of 

Foreign  Descent  and 

America's  Cause 


Otto  H.  Kahn 


Prussianized 
Germany 

From  an  address  before  the 

Ilarrisburg,  Pa.,  Chamber  of  Commerce 

September  26,  1917 


I  SPEAK  as  one  who  has  seen 
the  spirit  of  the  Prussian 
governing  class  at  work  from 
close  by,  having  at  its  disposal  and 
using  to  the  full  practically  every 
agency  for  moulding  the  public 
mind. 

I  have  watched  it  proceed  with 
relentless    persistency     and     pro- 

[3] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

found  cunning  to  instill  into  the 
nation  the  demoniacal  obsession  of 
power-worship  and  world-domin- 
ion, to  modify  and  pervert  the 
mentality — indeed  the  very  fibre 
and  moral  substance — of  the  Ger- 
man people,  a  people  which  until 
misled,  corrupted  and  system- 
atically poisoned  by  the  Prussian 
ruling  caste,  was  and  deserved  to 
be  an  honored,  valued  and  wel- 
come member  of  the  family  of 
nations. 

I  have  hated  and  loathed  that 
spirit  ever  since  it  came  within  my 
ken  many  years  ago;  hated  it  all 

[  4  ] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

the  more  as  I  saw  it  ruthlessly 
pulling  down  a  thing  which  was 
dear  to  me — the  old  Germany  to 
which  I  was  linked  by  ties  of 
blood,  by  fond  memories  and 
cherished  sentiments. 

The  difference  in  the  degree  of 
guilt  as  between  the  German  peo- 
ple and  their  Prussian  or  Prus- 
sianized rulers  and  leaders  for  the 
monstrous  crime  of  this  war  and 
the  atrocious  barbarism  of  its  con- 
duct is  the  difference  between  the 
man  who,  acting  under  the  influ- 
ence of  a  poisonous  drug,  runs 
amuck    in    mad    frenzy    and    the 

[5] 


P  I!  U  S  HI  AN  I  Z  E  D     GERMAN  Y 

unspeakable  malefactor  who  ad- 
ministered that  drug,  well  know- 
ing and  fully  intending  the  ghastly 
consequences  which  were  bound 
to  follow. 


[6] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 


THE  world  fervently  longs 
for  peace.  But  there  can  be 
no  peace  answering  to  the 
true  meaning  of  the  word — no  peace 
permitting  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
great  and  small,  to  walk  unarmed 
and  unafraid — until  the  teaching 
and  the  leadership  of  the  apostles 
of  an  outlaw  creed  shall  have  be- 
come discredited  and  hateful  in 
the  sight  of  the  German  people; 
until  that  people  shall  have 
awakened    to   a   consciousness   of 

[7] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

the  unfathomable  guilt  of  those 
whom  they  have  followed  into 
calamity  and  shame;  until  a  mood 
of  penitence  and  of  a  decent 
respect  for  the  opinions  of  man- 
kind shall  have  supplanted  the 
sway  of  what  President  Wilson 
has  so  trenchantly  termed  "trucu- 
lence  and  treachery." 

God  strengthen  the  conscience 
and  the  understanding,  the  will  and 
the  power  of  the  German  people 
so  that  they  may  find  the  only 
road  which  will  give  to  the  world 
an  early  peace  and  in  time  lead 
Germany  back  into  the  family  of 

[8] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

nations  from  which  it  is  now  an 
outcast. 

From  each  successive  visit  to 
Germany  for  twenty-five  years  I 
came  away  more  appalled  by  the 
sinister  transmutation  Prussianism 
had  wrought  amongst  the  people 
and  by  the  portentous  menace  I  re- 
cognized in  it  for  the  entire  world. 

It  had  given  to  Germany  un- 
paralleled prosperity,  beneficent 
and  advanced  social  legislation, 
and  not  a  few  other  things  of 
value,  but  it  had  taken  in  payment 
the  soul  of  the  race.  It  had  made 
a  "devil's  bargain." 

[9] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 


AND  when  this  war  broke  out 
in  Europe  I  knew  that  the 
-  issue  had  been  joined  be- 
tween the  powers  of  brutal  might 
and  insensate  ambition  on  the  one 
side  and  the  forces  of  humanity 
and  liberty  on  the  other;  between 
darkness  and  light. 

Many  there  were  at  that  time- 
and  amongst  them  men  for  whose 
character  I  had  high  respect  and 
whose  motives  were  beyond  any 
possible  suspicion — who  saw  their 

[10] 


P  R  U  S  S  I  A  N  I  Z  E  D     G  E  R  M  A  N  Y 

own  and  America's  duty  in  strict 
neutrality,  mentally  and  actually, 
but  personally  I  believed  from  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  whether  we 
liked  all  the  elements  of  the  Allies 
combination  or  not — and  I  cer- 
tainly did  not  like  the  Russia  of 
the  Czars — that  the  cause  of  the 
Allies  was  America's  cause. 

I  believed  that  this  was  no  or- 
dinary war  between  peoples  for  a 
question  of  national  interest,  or 
even  national  honor,  but  a  con- 
flict between  fundamental  prin- 
ciples and  ideas;  and  so  believing 
I    was    bound    to    feel    that    the 

Hi] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

natural  lines  of  race,  blood  and 
kinship  could  not  be  the  deter- 
mining lines  for  one's  attitude  and 
alignment,  but  that  each  man, 
regardless  of  his  origin,  had  to  de- 
cide according  to  his  judgment  and 
conscience  on  which  side  was  the 
right  and  on  which  was  the  wrong 
and  take  his  stand  accordingly, 
whatever  the  wrench  and  anguish 
of  the  decision.  And  thus  I  took 
my  stand  three  years  ago. 


[12] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 


BUT  whatever  one's  views 
and  feelings,  whatever  the 
country  of  one's  birth  or 
kin,  only  one  course  was  left  for  all 
those  claiming  the  privilege  of 
American  citizenship  when  after 
infinite  forbearance  the  President 
decided  that  our  honor  and  safety 
demanded  that  we  take  up  arms 
against  the  Imperial  German  Gov- 
ernment, and  by  action  of  Congress 
the  cause  and  the  fight  against 
that  Government  were  declared 
our  cause  and  our  fight. 

[13] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

The  duty  of  loyal  allegiance  and 
faithful  service  to  his  country, 
even  unto  death,  rests,  of  course, 
upon  every  American.  But,  if 
it  be  possible  to  speak  of  a  com- 
parative degree  concerning  what 
is  the  highest  as  it  is  the  most 
elementary  attribute  of  citizen- 
ship,  that  duty  may  almost  be 
said  to  rest  with  an  even  more 
solemn  and  compelling  obligation 
upon  Americans  of  foreign  origin 
than  upon  native  Americans. 

For  we  Americans  of  foreign 
antecedents  are  here  not  by  the 
accidental  right  of  birth,  but  by 

[  14  ] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

our  own  free  choice  for  better  or 
for  worse. 

We  are  your  fellow  citizens  be- 
cause you  accepted  our  oath  of 
allegiance  as  given  in  good  faith, 
and  because  you  have  opened  to  us 
in  generous  trust  the  portals  of 
American  opportunity  and  free- 
dom, and  have  admitted  us  to 
membership  in  the  family  of 
Americans,  giving  us  equal  rights 
in  the  great  inheritance  which  has 
been  created  by  the  blood  and  the 
toil  of  your  ancestors,  asking  noth- 
ing from  us  in  return  but  decent 
citizenship  and  adherence  to  those 

[15] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERM  A  N  Y 

ideals  and  principles  which  are 
symbolized  by  the  glorious  flag  of 
America. 

Woe  to  the  foreign-born  Ameri- 
can who  betrays  the  splendid  trust 
which  you  have  reposed  in  him! 

Woe  to  him  who  considers  his 
American  citizenship  merely  as  a 
convenient  garment  to  be  worn  in 
fair  weather  but  to  be  exchanged 
for  another  one  in  time  of  storm 
and  stress! 

Woe  to  the  German-American, 
so-called,  who,  in  this  sacred  war 
for  a  cause  as  high  as  any  for  which 
ever  people   took   up   arms,   does 

[16] 


PR  US  S  I  A  N  I  Z  E  D     GERMANY 

not  feel  a  solemn  urge,  does  not 
show  an  eager  determination  to 
be  in  the  very  fore-front  of  the 
struggle ;  does  not  prove  a  patriotic 
jealousy,  in  thought,  in  action  and 
in  speech  to  rival  and  to  outdo  his 
native-born  fellow  citizen  in  devo- 
tion and  in  willing  sacrifice  for 
the  country  of  his  choice  and 
adoption  and  sworn  allegiance, 
and  of  their  common  affection 
and  pride. 


[IT 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 


AS  Washington  led  Americans 
of  British  blood  to  fight 
-  against  Great  Britain,  as 
Lincoln  called  upon  Americans  of 
the  North  to  fight  their  very 
brothers  of  the  South,  so  Ameri- 
cans of  German  descent  are  now 
summoned  to  join  in  our  coun- 
try's righteous  struggle  against  a 
people  of  their  own  blood,  which, 
under  the  evil  spell  of  a  dreadful 
obsession,  and,  Heaven  knows, 
through  no  fault  of  ours,  has  made 

[18] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMAN  Y 

itself  the  enemy  of  this  peace- 
loving  Nation,  as  it  is  the  enemy 
of  peace  and  right  and  freedom 
throughout  the  world. 

To  gain  America's  independence, 
to  defeat  oppression  and  tyranny, 
was  indeed  to  gain  a  great  cause. 

To  preserve  the  Union,  to  eradi- 
cate slavery,  was  perhaps  a  greater 
still. 

To  defend  the  very  foundations 
of  liberty  and  humanity,  the  very 
groundwork  of  fair  dealing  be- 
tween nations,  the  very  basis  of 
peaceable  living  together  among 
the  peoples  of  the  earth  against 

[19] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

the  fierce  and  brutal  onslaught  of 
ruthless,  lawless,  faithless  might; 
to  spend  the  lives  and  the  fortunes 
of  this  generation  so  that  our 
descendants  may  be  freed  from 
the  dreadful  calamity  of  war 
and  the  fear  of  war,  so  that 
the  energies  and  billions  of  treas- 
ure now  devoted  to  plans  and 
instruments  of  destruction  may  be 
given  henceforth  to  fruitful  works 
of  peace  and  progress  and  to  the 
betterment  of  the  conditions  of 
the  people — that  is  the  highest 
cause  for  which  any  people  ever 
unsheathed  its  sword. 

[20] 


PRUSSIANIZED     GERMANY 

He  who  shirks  the  full  measure 
of  his  duty  and  allegiance  in  that 
noblest  of  causes,  be  he  German- 
American,  Irish-American,  or  any 
other  hyphenated  American,  be  he 
I.  W.  W.  or  Socialist  or  whatever 
the  appellation,  does  not  deserve 
to  stand  amongst  Americans  or,  in- 
deed, amongst  free  men  anywhere. 

He  who,  secretly  or  overtly,  tries 
to  thwart  the  declared  will  and 
aim  of  the  Nation  in  this  holy  war 
is  a  traitor,  and  a  traitor's  fate 
should  be  his. 


[21] 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

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